*Tell a friend*

Christmas wish.

One of the things Miriam wanted for Christmas was a gift card to the Build a Bear Workshop.  A few weeks ago we ventured to the mall and when she walked in the store it was Christmas morning all over again.

Miriam's eyes were big, her mind whirled, and her hands felt every thing as she ran around the store looking at each of the bears, bunnies, tigers, and frogs that she could invite home to sleep with her, cuddle with her, and pretty much get worn out with love.

The store also has all kinds of clothes, sunglasses, hair (yes, really!  little mini wigs!), underwear, bags, and anything else a child could imagine putting on a stuffed animal.  This, obviously, means:

Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. 

Sweet little Hoppy, the bunny, made the cut.  She's the one that came home with Miriam to get her very soft ears rubbed endlessly and eventually have holes worn in her that will need to be mended.

And, of course, Miriam had lots of help.

sweet. LIFE.

(as you can see, I'm messing around with some colors and post processing in these images...what are your thoughts?  love it, like it, hate it? do tell, in the comments...)

cereal.

Grace and I eat breakfast almost every morning together.  This morning was no different (this is not actually THIS morning...I'm still not able to eat much because I've got what Grace had...).  I planned to just take one picture of us eating together and then we got carried away and had fun taking pictures of every thing from the pouring of the cereal (I love that I have a picture now of Grace overflowing her bowl) to the eating.

Then Gracie decided she was done and left me sitting there alone then I just messed around...too long...and realized it was time to take Gracie to school. 

So what was going to be just one picture turned into this (this is a 10 second clip, make sure to click the play button below):

silly. LIFE.

too much time here.

Over the last week Grace and I have been together a lot.  And not always under the best of circumstances.  I think that she may be feeling better and I'm so glad about that.  Of course, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed hoping that it's really true.

All of you have been so wonderful and I've gotten some really sweet and thoughtful emails filled with concern and help and I can't even say how grateful I am to each of you.  I'm blessed.

Here's to all of the moms out there who have:

*stayed up at night with a sick child

*cleaned up puke off the wall...and the toliet...and the pjs...and the bed...and yourself

*washed a toliet so that the person that is putting their face it won't get even more sick because you haven't cleaned it in way too long

*wiped snot from a child's face and then wiped it on your own clothes or the grass while you were at the park without a tissue

*sat on the floor of a nasty bathroom to change a diaper or feed a baby

*bribed your child with ice cream to get them to do what you wanted them to

*said "because I'm the mom, that's why"

*gone to check on your child in the middle of the night just to make sure they are still breathing

*read Clifford the Big Red Dog at least 139 times

*walked in a room to see your child naked except for a diaper and painted like a lion...and the walls full of a little 2 year old's art

*looked out the front window to see your child in the street and had a panic attack

*been woken up by a child at 3am with a fever and stayed up at least 1/2 the night trying to bring it down

*heard your children giggling wildly in the next room and peeked around the corner to see what was going on

*made dinner with a child attached to your leg

*walked into a room and asked, "who made this mess?"  and had all of your kids say, "Not me!" and you know it wasn't YOU

*opened the fridge to eat that delicious piece of dessert you were planning to eat and found that someone else beat you to it

*cuddled next to a sweet little missie and had her say to you, "you're the best mom in the whole wide world.  I love you soooooooooooo much!"

*had little arms wrapped around your neck that wouldn't let go

*and had slobbery kisses from gooey mouths.

Here's to all of you...and here's to knowing that there's not a moment in the bunch that we want to trade.

good. LIFE.

sick missie.

ETA:  Stay tuned tomorrow (Jan. 15th) for the first installment of the Women and Business series!!

I was hoping to do a much more elaborate post of the self portrait work that I've been working on. However, the pictage ask and learn went longer than I planned and shortly after it was over my little Miss G woke up and was feeling her tummy rumbling again. In the past week and 1/2 or so she hasn't been feeling well.

Except the not feeling well is not consistent. Gracie hasn't felt sick for 10 days straight. Whatever she has just seems like it just keeps coming and going.  I can't figure out if she is really all of the way better.

Is my mom-sense totally off? 

She's thrown up a number of times and they don't seem to be linked to anything in particular.

We've spent a lot of time on the couch me holding her and her feeling miserable.

Then she'll seem like she's done with it.

She'll be back to herself, playing, laughing, reading, and going to school. This time she seemed like she was completely better. She hadn't thrown up since two nights ago. She went to school today. Had a great day. Said she felt great. And I was relived that everything looked like it was over.

Now...tonight something is back...not sure what.

We just spent a long time in the bathroom while she sat at the toliet waiting to throw up. Nothing except a lot of stomach gurgling and a lot of burping. Now she's sleeping on the couch next to me...and that took some coaxing. She didn't want to leave the bathroom for fear she may puke.

So...I'm not sure what they night ahead is going to be like. Or what is going on with Grace.

This is definitely a mom life...crouching by a toliet, holding someone's hair, and whispering sweet things in their ear.  Holding someone on the couch and hoping that your arms will somehow bring relief.

unsure. LIFE.